Adventures in the Later Roman Empire

06 June 2012

Bras not battlefields

The comms team in Historic Scotland are likely to be high fiving themselves this morning. After all Lisa Nicholson and her team of seven have got away with it. News of the resignation of Ruth Parsons, the under-fire chief executive of Historic Scotland, slipped out at the end of last week and has been completely buried by Jubilee celebrations and the four day Bank Holiday.

Historic Scotland did not even need to put up a press release.

Scotland on Sunday wrote a short piece, but the Herald's contribution to the debate was so woeful it is worth citing in its entirety:

The head of Scotland's national heritage agency has quit her post after just two-and-a-half years. Ruth Parsons, chief executive of Historic Scotland, has agreed to early retirement just months after a staff survey revealed claims by employees that they faced harassment at work.

The news cycle has now turned and no one is likely to ask any difficult questions.

Should we care? Yes. A veil of silence seems to hang over Historic Scotland. That in itself should be of concern. Ruth Parsons has given only one interview since she has been in office - she formally steps down in August. And the manner of her resignation over an extended Bank Holiday weekend gives the impresion of secrecy.

According to Historic Scotland's own figures the organisation saw revenues last year of more than GDP75 million, much of it from the taxpayer. To put that into context, Parsons' turnover was almost double that of Graham's, Scotland's largest independent dairy company, and seven and a half times that of Michelle Mone's lingerie brand MJM International.

The chief executive of a public sector body with that kind of a budget should not be able to slip out of the door without answering some questions.